"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."

Jeff Parker checks in tonight
with a Hot Toys review of the much smaller variety - take it away, Jeff!

Thanks as always to Michael. Back in January I reviewed the excellent
1/6 figures of Deunan and
Briareos, from Appleseed: Ex-Machina, then in September they
were finally joined by Tereus,
but at the time of his announcement they also unveiled some very cool
1/20 scale Ex-Machina snap-kits, they consisted of most of the Olympus
ES.W.A.T team, Deunan Knute, Briareos Hechatonchires, Tereus, Manuel
Aeacus and Rhoetus, but the thing that got the fans of Masamune Shirow
really excited was that if you bought a full display box, you were
guaranteed all the parts for a 1/20 scale Landmate
(LM) BAF (build a figure), it’s a concept
vehicle (well, more of a hulking great robo-suit with super
sensitive control and articulation, think power-loader with attitude)
that Shirow has used in many guises in many of his
stories and they finally got the 3D treatment in the new Appleseed
movies, you can see Deunan take on a construction LM here
and there are some more scenes of various LM from Appleseed in action, featured
here.

I’m still hopeful that Hot Toys
might revisit this line and give us a
1/6 version, OK, OK, I know it’s wishful thinking, but having seen the
Power Loader, Batpod and Tumbler, I’d never say never, Hot Toys are
certainly ambitious enough, and who knows the IRONMONGER from IRONMAN
has just ‘got’ to around the corner!

Packaging: ***
Like their other Snap-Kits and Cosbaby figures these come blind boxed.
But also like most other figures sold this way, you should find many
retailers will either open them or sell them with a sticker letting you
know the contents. However here is where you may encounter a problem.
The only way of guaranteeing that you get all the parts you need for a
complete LM is to buy a complete display box, which contains ten
figures (that’s right, all five characters twice) as Briareos doesn’t
come with any LM parts and all the others come with one of two
alternate parts.
It breaks down like this-

Now this is a bit naughty, but as the BAF is a bonus and they’ve made
this plain from the start, I guess you pays your money and makes your
choice. Plus it means I have a complete set of figures for my studio as
well as one for my home, and I’m sure a full set of figures would still
sell well on eBay should you want to.

All of the various bits for each figure come polly-bagged in separate
compartments hidden inside an oblong full colour box. This box has
pictures from the movie front and back with photos of the figures and
the disassembled LM on the sides, all very straight forward but nicely
done nonetheless.
Each one also comes with an instruction sheet on how to construct each
individual figure and the LM as well.

Sculpt: LM + Briareos
****, Others ***1/2
Both the LM (which works fantastically at this scale) and Briareos
stand out as the strongest in this set, and that’s down to the fact
that both are primarily ‘mecha’ figures, that’s not to say the humans
aren’t good too, but hardware is nearly always an easier job than flesh
and blood, even if it is in an Anime style.

All have different character
heads, and all very well executed to represent the allotted individual.
If I had to put them in order of preference I’d go for Briareos at the
top followed by Deunan who has some incredible work for this scale on
her hair detail and her small mic, then Rhoetus with his chiselled
native American features, next would be Manuel who has a half robotic
Bioroid head and lastly Tereus. As I said all are carried out well and
it’s obvious who each one is, but that’s my personal order of
preference, though it’s too close to affect the scores of the latter
four.

Apart from Briareos and Deunan,
who are the only two with 100% original body sculpts and parts
particular to them selves. Tereus and Rhoetus share identical bodies
and kit where as Manuel is virtually identical except for his Bioroid
upper left arm and he has a unique pistol.

Considering the scale, which is
only marginally larger than Hasbro’s Indy and Star Wars 3 ¾” lines they
have managed to pack in a ton of detail and an impressive amount of
articulation. The details on the tiny holsters, straps, buckles and
shoulder guards are spot on, and like the larger scale 1/6 figures,
they have even used a softer rubber like material to cover the upper
bodies and improve the pose-ability, most impressive.

Paint: ***1/2These are small-scale figures,
standing between 10 and 12 cm tall
(the LM is 18cm tall), but I kid you not, I can’t find any serious slop
at all!

From the miniscule copper rivets
and tiny silver buckles
on the figures armour right through to the larger decals and fine white
lines that adorn the LM it’s all virtually faultless and when viewed
with the naked eye you’ll find little or nothing to complain
about.

The
flesh tones are all pretty flat on the human characters, but the detail
work on the eyes, eyebrows, lips and headsets are all super crisp and
can put up with some pretty close scrutiny, I’ll hope my photo’s can
convey this. There’s also some great accurate detail work on the
colouration of their combat suits, with different tones of greys to
enhance the different panels.

The LM is beep, almost metallic
blue with red, black and steel details, as mentioned above there are
also some super fine detail lines picked out in white and it’s all
finished off with some nicely applied decals denoting it as an Olympus
ES.W.A.T version. A couple of variants would have been cool, a white
Olympus police version, and perhaps the new ‘pink’ version for Deunan,
but that would have meant buying a hellovalot of figures. Even Briareos
guns have some painted detail to pick out the steel coloured parts, an
amazing job for figures at this scale and price-point.

Articulation: LM **** All others ***3/4
These
are credited on the box with 20 points of articulation, though I count
more like 29, as I consider a joint that has both a swivelling and cut
ball joint that has a turning peg at either end to be three points, not
one.
The LM is likewise cited as having 32 points, I’d give it over 40.

A
rough breakdown for the 4 male figures would be: cut-ball and double
pegged (CDP) ankles, CDP knees, cut thighs, ball-jointed hips, limited
ball jointed waist with the same in the upper torso, a double pop-on
ball jointed neck at the chin and base of the neck, CDP shoulders,
elbows and wrists. Deunan has a few small differences because of her
scale. Her ankles are pinned and pegged, she doesn’t have the upper
torso articulation, her neck is only ball jointed at one end, her
shoulders are pinned and pegged, her upper arm is cut, the elbow is
pinned and the wrists are pinned and pegged as well, but apart from
that everything else is the same.

The LM has CDP ankles and
knees. Pop on ball-jointed hips, CDP waist, opening cockpit,
articulated pilot arms at the shoulder (and articulated pilot neck when
you have popped the head of which ever ES.W.A.T member you want in
place), articulated LM head, large CDP shoulders and CDP elbows and
wrists. It also has two articulated antennae on its shoulders and a
large set of wings on its back that can both turn and swivel. There I
hope that gives you some idea, but there’s no description in the world
that couldn’t be better understood than by sitting and playing with the
figures for twenty minutes, but suffice to say I was very impressed.

Manuel- Alternate silver pistol the same as the version that came with
1/6 Tereus http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_091708b.htm

Landmate- Large assault rifle.

Though
tiny, all these show great detail. Deunan even comes with an extra
‘bladeless’ sword hilt that fits into the top of her scabbard for when
it’s sheathed, and the large assault riffle for the LM has a side
handle for cocking and red lenses in the sights, nice attention to
detail.

Fun factor: ****
These could easily be used as toys, hell they are toys, they’re every
bit as solid as small Hasbro figures and have a lot more articulation
than most. They can pose well in some pretty dynamic positions and the
BAF LM is the icing on the cake for me. Seeing how well these turned
out I’d love to see them give the same treatment to Batman TDK and even
more so to IRONMAN, which would lend itself so well to this style, and
an IRONMONGER BAF would be freakin awesome!

Value: ** - **1/2
If you’re happy to have two sets of figures and a ‘bonus’ Landmate
***1/2
If you just want to build the Landmate **

Sideshows were selling these for $12.99 each, but have long since sold out of all of them. I imagine there might be some unhappy
campers when these are delivered as it doesn’t explain on their
web-site that you need a full case to guarantee all the parts for the
LM, in fact I would even go so far as to say they lead one to believe
that by purchasing a full set of figures you will be able to construct
the LM , this is however not the case.

When you consider you’re gonna
be paying on average $120 for a case that works out at $12 each with a
free Landmate or $10 each with a $20 Landmate, but whichever way you
dress it up, at the end of the day, to actually build the BAF, you end
up with two whole sets of figures. As I said, one set could be sold on,
but it could be considered a bit of a nause!

Overall: ** - ****
Individually ****
If you just wanted the LM with Deunan and Briareos **

If judged solely on the merits of the design, construction and paint
applications then these are four-star figures hands down. Even the
price on an individual basis is more than fair.

Where the trouble begins is if
you want that BAF, and lets face it, every Shirow
fan will want it a lot.

It is a great figure/vehicle
with outstanding detail and articulation, and again as a standalone
piece is worthy of full marks, but the truth of the matter is you face
having to buy more figures than you need, to actually get it!

Some people are selling all the
parts for the LM as an individual figure on eBay, but most are asking
upwards of $50. So it’s a very sticky
wicket and this category will polarize fans of the series.

I’m sure if you contact these sellers they would do you an unopened
case, or you can try
eBay where a full case is going for between $110 to $140
(remember to keep an eye on the shipping), and individual figures are
selling for between $14 and $19 depending on popularity, so I guess
it’s a no brainer that it seems Deunan and Briareos are selling for
more money and a lot faster.